Youngest turns 10!

November 1 is a special day.. the day I lost a grandfather, but gained a child.

Walking the boy across the bridge to a new year...

(This may be the last year we do the boy on the bridge, although youngest was quite keen that we did it this year.. but around 11 is when the older 2 mostly did it to humor me. Neither the new 14 or 17 year old asked for it this year, so I let it go…)

It is hard to believe he is 10. And hard to believe that after those first tense weeks, he has turned out to be a robust and healthy kid.

From here:

To here:

Baseball fanatic with Dad

He had a fine birthday. His brothers hid his presents and he had a treasure hunt with the rhyming clues they made. And his dinner was made to order:

Mummy dogs... mmmm.

Cake!

He also had pesto pasta from pesto we made with the last harvests of basil. He asked for this cake from a cookbook that had no pictures. It turns out he chose a cake my great grandmother made on a regular basis, which she called Lazy Daisy Cake. Grandma told me great grandma always started her meal planning with dessert, back in the day where every meal ended sweetly. In our modern life, we rarely have “dessert” except on birthdays, hot summer days ending in ice cream, or other holiday celebrations.

See the haze of smoke?

We used trick candles on his cake.. he blew them out over and over.. and laughed harder and harder. But he loved it.